Try to Remember - the Lost Episode
by Nassy Nyrolian
Summary: Remember that line from Across the Second Dimension? "Amnesia-Inator? I never made one of those. (Pause) And I would remember making something like that!" Presenting...the lost episode with the Amnesia-Inator!


"There are one hundred and four days of summer vacation, Ferb, but today is sure a doozy."

Lightning flashed as the Phineas Flynn and his stepbrother, Ferb Fletcher, looked out the window. Rain pattered against the glass, and thunder rumbled. Pools of water were collecting on the sidewalk, the grey sky reflected in them.

"We were gonna built the biggest parasail ever today, right?" he asked Ferb. "Well, that's not happening," he concluded, watching the lightning.

"Boys!" their mom called, sticking her head into the room. "I'm off with your father to an antiques convention. I want you to behave, listen to Candace, and stay inside today, okay?"

"Sure, Mom," Phineas agreed.

"All right, see you later!" She ran out to the car, got in, and they sped away.

Candace ran into the room. "Okay, you heard Mom. You've got to behave and listen to me!"

Phineas and Ferb stared at her from the couch.

"And I say that you're not allowed to do anything bustworthy today."

"Bustworthy?" Phineas asked.

"Yes, bustworthy," Candace confirmed. "Anything that I feel the need to bust you for. That includes fifty-foot tree house robots, monster cars, time machines, and anything else that you might think of! Got it?"  
Phineas and Ferb sat in silence.

"Good!" Candace said, and left the room.

The rain continued to rap on the windowpanes, and another crash of thunder sounded. Phineas stood up. "Well, I'm not about to let a little rain ruin_ this_ day. There's still a lot to do inside, and we're gonna do it all! Ferb, blueprints please."

Ferb placed a rolled-up piece of paper in Phineas's hand. Phineas unrolled it and looked it over. "Uh-huh…yeah…great! Let's call Isabella, Baljeet and Buford." He looked up from his blueprint. "Hey, where's Perry?"

Ferb pointed to the sleeping platypus on the floor.

"Oh, right. Let's go!"

Once Phineas and Ferb left the room, the apparently 'sleeping' platypus straightened up and put on his trademark fedora. He was no longer just _Perry._ He was _Agent P_.

Perry ran to a picture that was hanging on the wall and opened it, revealing a platypus-sized hole in the wall. Perry slipped through and slid down a chute, deep into the ground, where his top-secret headquarters were. As usual, Major Monogram was waiting for him on a large screen to give him his latest mission.

"Ah, there you are, Agent P," he said as Perry took his place on a swiveling seat in front of the screen. "Doctor Doofenshmirtz has recently bought a few strange items: a large quantity of scrap metal, about three hundred bolts and screws, high-power electrical cords, and a Magic Pen and Pencil set. Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to investigate." Major Monogram paused. "Well, actually, you don't have a choice in whether you accept it or not. I just wanted to say that to be cool. Didn't that sound cool, Carl?" he asked the payless intern.

"Yes, sir, very cool," Carl agreed.

"Good luck, Agent P," the Major said, but Perry was already out of his chair. He selected a hovercraft from his modes of transportation and flew off, ready to fight evil.

"Steady, steady," Phineas instructed. Isabella, Buford and Baljeet pulled the ropes of what looked like a large doorway, minus the door, in the middle of their living room. "If we drop this, we might lose a vital piece. And there isn't any hint of foreshadowing in that sentence," he added.

The group heaved and pulled on the ropes, and eventually the doorway was upright. They cut off the ropes and stood back to admire it.

"So… what does it do?" Isabella asked Phineas.

"This is a virtual reality simulator," Phineas explained. "Anyone who steps through this door will find themselves in the perfect conditions for a great summer day." He took out a remote, and pressed the 'on' button. Like a mirage, an image of their backyard appeared, seemingly just through the doorway. They all ventured through, and found themselves standing under the shady oak tree which was, in the real world, wet with the rain. In the virtual reality, it was sunny and warm.

"But what really makes this reality _really_ special are two things. The first is that we have unlimited movement. For example, we can fly." To demonstrate his point, he lifted up into the air for a few moments, and landed again. "We can also go through solid objects. You could walk through that tree, through our house, or even through the ground! There is no limit to what you can do here!

"And the second really special thing is that free juice bar over there," he said, waving to it.

"But what exactly is there to do?" Baljeet asked.

"Whatever you'd want to do outside," Phineas answered. "But with all the cool perks of this virtual backyard. For example, volleyball." Phineas pressed another button on his remote, and a net appeared.

"I volunteer Baljeet to be the ball!" Buford shouted.

"That's not necessary. You see, I can make a ball appear, too. With this remote, I can make anything appear or disappear," Phineas explained.

There was a slight pause. "I still volunteer Baljeet to be the ball!" Buford said.

"All right," Isabella said, positioning herself to be on Phineas's team (of course). "Zero serving zero!"

Outside the virtual reality, Candace was glued to her cell phone. "I'm telling you, Stacy, no matter what she says, tomatoes are _so _not a fruit." Candace walked into the living room. "I mean, did you ever think it was a fruit before-" Her conversation stopped abruptly as she saw the gateway.

"Gotta call you back, Stace," Candace said quickly, and snapped the cell phone shut. "You little freaks!" she yelled, running towards the doorway. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Oh, hi Candace!" Phineas said cheerfully. "We're playing virtual reality volleyball."

Candace glared at them from the other side of the doorway. "I thought I told you little monsters to not do anything bustworthy today!" She thought about what Phineas had agreed to before their Mom had left. "And you agreed to listen to me!"

"I did _listen_ to you," Phineas corrected. "I just didn't do what you said."

Meanwhile, in the real world, Agent P had arrived at Doctor Doofenshmirtz's apartment, where he lived and planned most of his evil deeds. Perry crashed through the window and landed nimbly on the floor, but almost immediately a metal cage snapped up around him.

"Ah, Perry the Platypus," said the mad scientist, emerging from the shadows. "And once again you break through the windows, just to be trapped by one of my genius traps!" He shook his head. "No, wait, that's redundant…I shouldn't say _traps_; I just used _trapped._ Let's see, snare? No…Wait! I've got it! Perry the Platypus, would you mind kind of…redoing this? Just come in through a window again?"

Perry stared at Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

He opened the trap to let Perry out. Perry rolled his eyes and climbed out through the window, before smashing in through another. Once again, the metal cage sprang up around him.

"Ah, Perry the Platypus," said Doofenshmirtz again. "And once again you break through the windows, just to be _ensnared_ by one of my genius traps! Ha! There, that's better, much better flow. Now, Perry the Platypus, prepare to see my latest and greatest Inator!"

From the floor rose up a gigantic laser ray, glinting menacingly. "This, Perry the Platypus, is my Amnesia-Inator! And," he said, pointing to something beside it, "that small box is a Magic Pen and Pencil set. You may be wondering exactly _why _I built my Amnesia-Inator, and why I have that Magic Pen and Pencil set beside it. It is a long and tragic story," he said, with grief coming into his voice. "Well, not really _that _long and tragic, but it's a good story anyway.

"A little while ago, I was reading the newspaper and saw this advertisement for a Magic Pen and Pencil set. I was enthralled with the utter usefulness of these objects, although, the ad never really _said_ what made them magic…Anyway, I ordered this set, paid with my credit card, and awaited its arrival in the mail. The first day, it did not come. The second day, it did not come. The third day, it did not come."

He paced back and forth in utter frustration. "I waited for it for _days_, sitting in front of my mail slot, camping out in a sleeping bag, until I had had enough! I called the company and said, 'Hey, why haven't I got this Magic Pen and Pencil set?' You know what they said, Perry the Platypus?" He threw his hands up to the sky. "They had _forgotten_ it! They forgot all about it! I guess that I, Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz, just isn't _special_ enough to get things when I order them!" Doofenshmirtz stopped in front of Perry's cage. "And that is why I built this Amnesia-Inator. I will take out my revenge on the company, and make _every single _deliveryman suddenly _forget_ that they have to make a delivery! I will make the whole town of Danville just as frustrated as I was to never receive my order! And you cannot stop me, Perry the Platypus!"

Perry stared at Doofenshmirtz, unimpressed.

"What?" he asked. "I know that I could use the Amnesia-Inator to make people forget that they have a president, or to forget that they aren't my slaves…but you have to take care of the _important _things first!" he told Perry. "And this is important! Now, like I said before, you cannot stop me!" he cackled madly, and rose up with his Amnesia-Inator to the roof of his building.

Perry wasted no time. He reached out and grabbed a piece of broken glass from the pile around him, and threw it at the button conveniently marked _THIS BUTTON WILL RELEASE PERRY THE PLATYPUS'S CAGE. _It hit, and the cage folded back into the floor. Perry raced out the door, found the staircases and began to climb.

"Come out of there, right now!" Candace demanded.

"Just wait, Candace, I want to finish this game," Phineas said, flying up into the air to hit a spike ball.

"No buts!" she yelled. "Come outta there, RIGHT NOW!" She stomped her foot on the ground, and a small piece fell off of the doorway. Immediately, the image began to flicker and waver. Inside the virtual reality, Phineas, Ferb, and their friends were tossed around as the reality folded and shook.

"What's going on?" Isabella asked.

"The false space of the reality is preparing to close itself off from the outside world!" Baljeet shouted, terrified.

"Phineas! What are you doing now?" Candace asked from the doorway, slightly nervous, as her brothers were flying around, helpless.

"Put back that piece, Candace!" Phineas yelled.

Candace took a step forward. "What?" she asked. As she took the step, she kicked the piece into the false reality.

The image began to stabilize. It stopped wavering, and then it became solid again. "Why'd it stop?" Buford asked.

"Because we are now stably disconnected from reality," realized Baljeet, quivering.

"You mean we're trapped?" asked Isabella.

"Afraid so. At least, until Candace puts that piece in. Don't worry, she's probably working on it right now."

"Hey, what's this?" Isabella said, picking up the small chip.

"Oh, that's just the piece that Candace needs to put back in," Phineas said.

In turn, everybody's eyes went wide.

"Oh, wait…" Phineas realized.

"PHINEAS! What's going on?" Candace screamed from the doorway. "I want you out, pronto!"

"That's a bit of an impossibility right now," Phineas told her, coming to the doorway. "We seem to be trapped."

"Yeah, right," Candace scoffed, trying to put a hand through the doorway to drag her brother out. It was stopped halfway, as if a wall of glass separated them. "Wait, what?" Candace said, trying to get through. "What did you do, you little pipsqueak?"

"Well, Candace, it's actually your fault. You kicked in the piece you need to repair it."

She knelt down on the floor to check. "I did?" She felt around, but there was nothing. "Do you have another?"

"No, but I know where you can get one," Phineas offered.

Perry the Platypus burst through the door at the top of the stairs, emerging on the roof, where a huge piece of metal above them protected them from the rain. He saw the evil doctor, preparing his Amnesia-Inator to strike all the deliverymen in Danville.

"What? You escaped?" asked the astonished mad scientist. "Well, I guess that I shouldn't be _too_ surprised. I mean, you escape every time, so…" He pulled a level on his Amnesia-Inator, and it lit up as it prepared to fire a bolt. "But this time, you truly can't stop me! It's getting ready to fire, see?" He pointed to the ray, and while Perry looked, Doofenshmirtz pressed another button, and another cage popped up around him.

"Yes?" Candace was once again on her cell phone. "I'd like to place an order for a …Small Virtual Reality Chip, number…" she squinted at the catalogue. "Number 356429."

"What size?" asked the person on the other end.

"Small," repeated Candace.

"Okee-dokee," said the other person. "We'll send a guy with it right over."

"Ha!" said Doofenshmirtz. "And once again, you are trapped by one of my…oh, no, I did it again!" He sighed. "Hold on, Perry, how about when I open the cage, you go to the door again? Hmm? Okay," he said, releasing the cage around Perry.

Perry leaped out of the cage toward Doctor Doofenshmirtz, who backed up against his Amnesia-Inator. "What? Perry the Platypus, taking advantage of me trying to fix my word flow by escaping isn't very nice," Doofenshmirtz said.

"But you can't stop me now!" he said. "And yes, I know that that's, like, the fifth time I've said that, but now I really mean it!" He reached out and pressed a large green button, and the Amnesia-Inator fired.

Around Danville, deliverymen were hit with a blast from the Amnesia-Inator. They stopped what they were doing, looked around, and wandered off on paths of their own choosing. Any notion they had of doing their duty vanished.

One such deliveryman was carrying a Small Virtual Reality Chip, number 356429. He had just gotten out of his car, huddled under his umbrella, and had rung the doorbell. Suddenly, a blast of the Amnesia-Inator hit him. He reeled backwards, and looked around befuddled.

Candace opened the door. "Hello? Oh, are you here with the chip?"

"Chip?" the man asked.

"Uh, yeah!"

"I don't have any chip."

"What?" Candace asked. "You must have a chip. You're from the delivery service, right?"

"Delivery service?"

"If you're not here to deliver the chip, why are you on the porch?" she demanded.

He shrugged again. "I don't know. I just found myself here."

"Yeah, and did you find yourself with a chip?" she asked.

"Told you, I don't have any chip," he said. He got back into his car and drove away.

Candace slammed the door, frustrated. She went back to the portal. "Phineas, the guy who just showed up didn't have it!"

"Oh, then we'll just have to find a way to give you this one," Phineas said. He turned to his friends. "Well, any ideas?"

"Is it possible to find another way out of the virtual reality?" Isabella asked.

"No, I don't think so," said Phineas. "We built it pretty steady."

"Then can we, if enough force is applied, force the chip through?" Baljeet suggested.

"No…But wait!" he said, tapping the doorway. If we could partly short-circuit this doorway, it might create enough instability to slip it through!" Phineas realized.

"So, what do we do?" asked Buford.

"I've got an idea…" said Phineas.

"Feel my wrath, Perry the Platypus!" Doofenshmirtz yelled, now turning his Amnesia-Inator towards the semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammal of action. He fired at Perry, who jumped and leaped and dodged every blast. He fired everywhere, trying to hit him.

"Take that! And that! And that! And this! And that! And that! Why can't you trip, or get tired, or something?" he demanded.

"It's a good thing I decided to put this juice bar in," Phineas said, getting a cup and filling it with apple juice. "It isn't virtual, since I stocked it before you guys came."

Candace heard footsteps outside. Their parents were home from the convention! She had to hurry if…wait a second! Why was she helping Phineas and Ferb get _unbusted?_ This was the opportunity she had been waiting for her whole life!

In the alternate reality, Phineas took the cup over to the doorway, ready to pour. "Got the chip?" he asked Ferb, who nodded.

"All right, here goes nothing…one, two, THREE!" He poured the apple juice over part of the doorway, and electrical sparks flew. "Now, Ferb!"

Ferb shoved the piece in through the doorway, and it landed at Candace's feet. "Put it in!" Phineas shouted at his sister.

A smile crossed her face. "No, I don't think I will. It's time for you to get busted! You're going down, down down!" She began a little dance. "My brothers are getting busted! My brothers are getting busted! Oh, yeah!"

"Candace!" they all shouted.

She continued dancing, savoring her victory.

Suddenly, a stray blast from the Amnesia-Inator hit her. She looked around blankly. "Huh?"

"Put the piece in!" Phineas shouted.

"Why?" she asked.

"Just do it, Candace!"

Candace picked up the small piece and fit it into the doorway, confused. The image wavered for a second, before stabilizing, and allowing the alternate reality to reconnect with the real world. Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford ran out as fast as they could.

"Thanks, Candace!" said Phineas as they ran out.

"Say what?" she asked, puzzled.

"Thanks for helping out of getting busted."

The word _busted_ woke Candace from her amnesia. "What? No! NEVER! I will never help you get unbusted! What have I done?" she asked, devastated.

Doctor Doofenshmirtz had cornered Perry. "Haha! Now I've got you, Perry the Platypus!" He prepared to fire his Amnesia-Inator.

Perry looked up and saw the self-destruct button on the Amnesia-Inator, but it was right by Doctor Doofenshmirtz!

"I know what you're thinking, Perry the Platypus! I see you looking at the self-destruct button! But there's no way that you could ever get it!"

Perry pulled something out from behind his back. It was the Magic Pen and Pencil set. He quickly took out the pencil, and gave it a wave in the air. The self-destruct button shimmered and vanished from the machine's side, only to appear in Perry's hand.

"What? How did you do that?" Doofenshmirtz shouted. "Well, you still can't stop me from blasting you with the Amnesia-Inator!" He pressed the button, laughing manically.

Perry gave the pencil another wave in the air, and the ray swiveled to face Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

"NO! Curse you, Perry the Platypus!" he yelled, as the Amnesia-Inator prepared to fire at him. "And curse you, Magic Pen and Pencil set, which turned out not to be a hoax to get peoples' money and actually was magic! Wow, how often does _that _happen?"

With a bang, it blasted Doofenshmirtz. Perry then hit the self-destruct button, and the Amnesia-Inator blew itself to bits.

Perry leaped off the building and deployed his parachute. It had been another successful mission.

Candace ran to the door to let her Mom and Dad in. There was no way that they could hide that doorway, she thought. There was still a chance that Phineas and Ferb would be busted for good.

"Hello, Candace," Linda Flynn said as the door was opened. "Oh, good, it's stopped raining," she noticed, as the sun came out. "Just in time for us to get home, of course."

"You have to see what Phineas and Ferb have built!" she said, dragging her mother into the house. "Look!" she said, taking her into the living room. Phineas and Ferb were sitting on the couch, just as they had been when she left.

"What did they build this time?" Linda Flynn asked.

"This doorway to an alternate reality!" Candace exclaimed, pointing at where it was.

It wasn't there anymore.

"Huh?" asked Candace, looking around. "Where did you put it?" she asked Phineas.

"Oh, look, isn't the backyard lovely?" Linda asked, pointing outside. "Why don't you guys go outside and play now, after being cooped up?"

"Can we have a snack first?" asked Phineas.

"Sure. Let me get something ready."

"Where did you put it?" Candace hissed at Phineas.

"I put it away," Phineas said.

"Where is away?"

He shrugged. "Somewhere."

"Somewhere _where_?" She leaned on the doorway to the backyard. A piece fell off of it, and the image began to shake again. Candace baked away, while the doorway flashed and shuddered.

Space was so unstable that it twisted and bent, and the doorway folded in on itself into nothingness.

"Gee, thanks again, Candace," Phineas said.

Candace stood with her hands at her sides, realizing what she had done. "I need to do some soul-searching," she whispered, and ran upstairs.

"Oh, there you are, Perry," Phineas said as Perry walked into the room. He sat down and made the chittering noise distinctive of a platypus.

"Boys! Snack's ready," Linda called from the kitchen.

"Let's go!" Phineas said to Ferb.

"I don't believe that Candace's soul-searching will yield favorable results," Ferb noted as he got off the couch. "She is a ginger, after all."

"Hey!" Phineas exclaimed. "I'm a ginger! What are you saying, I don't have a soul? What are these people gonna think?"

Ferb looked at Phineas. "No one would have noticed if you hadn't said anything," he replied evenly.


End file.
